“In regards to MT ferrule geometry measurements, Minus Coplanarity (or Minus-Side Coplanarity) is one way to describe how “flat” or “co-planar” an array of fibers is. To ensure minimum optical performance requirements of the...
I believe every fiber optic manufacturing company should build its own test leads. Of course, these test leads must provide accurate, repeatable Insertion Loss (IL) test results. This article offers guidance to confidently build and use your own EF-Compliant “modally...
Frequently, my customers ask for guidance to develop a fiber optic polishing process. While there are many details to consider, the process comes down to 5 basic steps. Note that this article focuses on single-fiber (and not MT) PC ferrules. While much of my advice...
How can you adjust your APC polishing process to modify characteristics of the geometry and achieve consistent accuracy? APC polishing issues could derive from problems with mechanics (materials or equipment) or the polishing process itself. When developing a...
Understanding and controlling end-face geometry characteristics of PC ferrules is fairly simple and intuitive. A radius is……a radius. And if you want to increase the radius of a ferrule, you simply need to polish with less pressure, or use a harder backing pad...
To help ensure consistent polishing results, maintenance of all fiber optic polishing equipment is essential. The Preventive Maintenance program for polishing fixtures should include periodic ultrasonic cleaning. This is true for any fiber optic polishing fixtures,...
In terms of long-term reliability, the “weakest link” of a connectorized cable assembly is the area within the ferrule which contains the strip “transition point” (where the buffered fiber is stripped down to bare fiber) and the majority of the injected epoxy. In...
The processes involved in Termination play a CRITICAL role in determining the long-term reliability of the product, and more importantly, errors made in the Termination processes often cannot be detected by subsequent production-line tests / measurements! Even...
